Chocolate Gingerbread Stamped Cookies ~ these pretty old world holiday cookies are made with cookie stamps, and the snowflake design is highlighted with a sweet glaze. Make them the star of your holiday cookie collection!
My chocolate gingerbread stamped cookies will give you instant holiday spirit!
Tis the season for gingerbread and this is gingerbread with a twist. I’ve added a dose of cocoa powder and a boost of warm cardamom to make a sophisticated flavored cookie that also brings a sense of wonder to your cookie collection. Thanks to the molasses these cookies will keep their soft chewy texture for days.
Cookie stamps are such fun to play with during the holidays. They turn ordinary roll out cookie dough into intricate masterpieces, with just a quick firm press into rolled dough.
Cookie stamps I recommend:
I recommend Nordicware cookie stamps, they’re made of sturdy metal and the patterns are beautiful. In particular I recommend the Starry Night set, below, it gave me the best results ( you can see the result here.) The set I used for this post is the Disney Frozen Fallen Snowflake set, but I didn’t think the results were as sharp.
Tips and tricks for using cookie stamps
Cookie stamps couldn’t be easier, and they give great results if you remember a few key points.
- Use the correct dough. Not all dough is appropriate for stamping. It needs to be a firm dough that doesn’t spread or rise too much in the oven. Most cookie stamps come with a recipe on the package that you can use as a starting point.
- Chilled dough works best with cookie stamps.
- The best cookie stamps are metal, and they have nice deeply engraved patterns.
- Put your stamps in the freezer while you make your dough. The cold stamp won’t stick to the dough.
- If you do have sticking, try lightly dusting your stamps with flour. Tap off the excess before stamping, and freshly flour before each new cookie.
- Bake a test cookie to check how the impression turns out. If it fades, try chilling the cut cookies before baking.
- Use a plain, non-insulated cookie sheet to bake stamped cookies.
Tips for glazing gingerbread stamped cookies
The glaze is almost as important as the stamped pattern! It helps highlight the beautiful design and adds an extra dose of sweetness to the cookies.
- The glaze for stamped cookies is formulated to sink into the crevices of the surface of the cookie to reveal and highlight the design.
- The glaze should be made with confectioner’s sugar and warm water, which creates a glaze that dries well so the cookies can be stacked.
- The glaze used for these cookies is the one I recommend, you can flavor it as you like, but keep the proportions the same. The consistency should be like maple syrup or a thinned honey.
- Always glaze a test cookie first and then adjust your glaze as necessary. If it’s too thin, add a bit more sifted confectioner’s sugar. If it’s too thick, thin with warm water, a few drops at a time.
- Use a pastry brush to brush the glaze over the surface of the cookie. It’s ok if some drips off the sides. The glaze will look white at first, but will dry to a more translucent color.
Once dry these chocolate gingerbread stamped cookies will stack well, so you can pack them to ship, or place them in cellophane bags for gifting.
Other holiday cookies to check out!
- Soft Glazed Gingerbread Cookies
- Glazed Gingerbread Spritz Cookies
- Fudgy Brownie Cookies
- Maple Glazed Oatmeal Cookies
- Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
- Easy Gingerbread Cookies with Royal Icing
“First time using a cookie stamp and am so happy how well these turned out! The cookies held the design really well and taste great, very rich, and subtly complex. Not too sweet, and a nice change from the usual gingersnaps.”
Crispy
Chocolate Gingerbread Stamped Cookies
Equipment
- cookie stamps
Ingredients
wet ingredients
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp dark brown sugar, packed
- 1/3 cup molasses
- 1 large egg yolk
dry ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 3 Tbsp Dutch processed cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
glaze
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted
- 1 Tbsp melted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp warm water to thin, plus more as necessary
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugar together until well blended, then beat in the molasses and egg yolk, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed to get everything fully incorporated.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together, then, with the mixer on low, slowly add to the wet ingredients until the dough comes together.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly flour surface and knead a couple of times to bring it all together. Form into a flat disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375F Put your cookie stamps in the freezer to chill. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. Press a cold cookie stamp into the dough, pressing all around the stamp to get a good impression. Then cut out with a round cookie cutter of a similar size. Place on the cookie sheet. Note: if the cookie stamp sticks, lightly flour it (and knock off the excess) before stamping. The impression should be nice and sharp for best results.
- Transfer the cookies to a lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. You don't want to over bake these cookies, so do a test cookie or two to figure out the best timing for your oven. The cookies will be soft when you remove them from the oven, but will firm up as they cool. Note: do a test cookie first, if your samped design fades during baking, try chilling the cookies for 15 minutes before baking.
- While the cookies are baking whisk the glaze ingredients together until they become a smooth thin glaze. Add more water if the glaze is too thick, a little at a time. It should have the consistency of maple syrup or a thin honey.
- Put the cookies on a cooling rack and brush them with the glaze while still slightly warm. The glaze will dry in about 30 minutes.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to a week. Makes 14-18 cookies.
Nutrition
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I tried to make a single batch of dough today. It tasted pretty good but I ended up throwing it away because it was too crumbly and wouldn’t form a ball. I followed the recipe exactly. Was it because of the way I scooped the flour? I’m in Utah and love to bake.
When a dough doesn’t come together it usually just needs a tiny bit of extra moisture, so I’d add a few drops of milk and keep mixing until it comes together. If your butter wasn’t quite room temperature, or you got a bit of extra flour, that could be the issue, too.